Scottish Executive

Audiology

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-23834 by Mrs Mary Mulligan on 22 March 2002, what other resources and support have been allocated to audiology departments to enable them to comply with The Good Practice Guidance for Adult Hearing Aid Fittings and Services .

Mrs Mary Mulligan: I have today announced the allocation of an extra £750,000 to NHS boards across Scotland during 2002-03 to reduce excessively long waiting times within audiology services, assist compliance with certain aspects of the Good Practice Guidance and provide hearing aids.

  The results of the national review of audiology services, which will report in the autumn, will be used to assess future needs and identify the resources needed to meet them.

British-Irish Council

Trish Godman (West Renfrewshire) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether sectarianism in Scotland will be discussed at any future meeting of the British-Irish Council.

Ms Patricia Ferguson: There are no plans at present to discuss sectarianism in Scotland at a meeting of the British-Irish Council, as the work programme for the council has already been agreed.

Cities

Alex Johnstone (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it discussed the issue of local government boundaries when it met representatives from Angus Council to discuss the review of cities.

Alex Johnstone (North-East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when its meeting with Angus Council to discuss issues related to the Review of Cities took place, with whom it met and what the outcomes were.

Iain Gray: Peter Peacock is due to meet with Angus Council and the other councils neighbouring Dundee on 29 April 2002.

Genetically Modified Seeds

Nora Radcliffe (Gordon) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received the report prepared by the Canadian seed authorities on the possible causes of GM contamination of hybrid oil seed rape exported to the UK in the spring of 2000.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive has received a copy of the report recently issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. I have made arrangements for copies to be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 20577). The report concludes that it was not possible to determine the source of the adventitious trait present in the seed lots exported to Europe. As a result, the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association and the Canadian Seed Trade Association have undertaken a study to review seed industry practices.

Health

Brian Fitzpatrick (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking in order to ensure that patients will receive treatment at a time that suits them in accordance with their clinical needs.

Malcolm Chisholm: By March 2003, the Electronic Clinical Communications Implementation project will be in place throughout Scotland, enabling widespread electronic linking between GP surgeries and hospitals. This will bring a number of significant benefits for patients, including electronic booking of hospital out-patient appointments by patients and their GPs, via the GP surgery.

Health

Brian Fitzpatrick (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking in order to secure year-on-year improvements in patient satisfaction, including with standards of cleanliness and food, as measured by independently audited local surveys.

Malcolm Chisholm: Patient satisfaction depends primarily on the quality of care they receive. The Executive has introduced a system of standards, including those for cleaning services and hospital food, designed to ensure that patients receive a high quality service throughout the NHS in Scotland. The Clinical Standards Board for Scotland will monitor the achievement of these standards, but surveys of patient or user views will continue to be important.

  The Patient Focus and Public Involvement framework, which I launched in December, indicated that the Executive will shortly be publishing guidance to the NHS on the use of surveys. This guidance will provide information on current practice, identify key features of effective surveys and suggest ways the NHS can improve the value of surveys.

Health

Mr Andrew Welsh (Angus) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when the last audit was carried out into NHS orthopaedic services, whether the audit was published and, if so, when and, if it was not, whether it will now be published.

Malcolm Chisholm: An on-going national audit of hip fracture patients, provides regular feed back to participating centres and to annual professional meetings. An annual report is to be published within the next two months. This will be linked with the evidence based SIGN Guideline on the prevention and management of hip fracture in older people which was published in January 2002.

  CRAG Clinical Outcome Indicators will be published in May 2002. These will include survival rates for 30 days and for 120 days after admission for hip fracture for every trust in Scotland (as defined before reorganisation on 1 April 1999). Complete trend data for every year from 1991 to 2000 will be presented.

  The Scottish Trauma Audit Group (STAG) also collects data on all major trauma cases including orthopaedic trauma. This is fed back to local teams, but is not published.

  There are no national audits into the provision of orthopaedic services, but the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland (CSBS) has accepted that the management of fractured hip is a tracer condition for the provision of acute services to older people. CSBS will be monitoring all Scottish acute services for older people later this year and will publish their report in 2003.

Justices of the Peace

Mr Duncan McNeil (Greenock and Inverclyde) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce measures designed to encourage more people on low incomes to become justices of the peace.

Mr Jim Wallace: Candidates to become justices of the peace are nominated to ministers by local Justice of the Peace Advisory Committees (JPACs). JPACs are required to ensure firstly, that candidates are personally suitable in terms of character, integrity and understanding. They are also encouraged to nominate candidates from across the spectrum, so that the body of justices in the area is broadly representative of all sections of the community which they serve.

  The role and function of justices is to be considered as part of the wide-ranging review of summary justice being conducted by an independent committee chaired by Sheriff Principal McInnes:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/summaryjusticereview.

  There are no plans to alter the current system of appointments until the committee has submitted its recommendations to ministers, but I have no doubt the committee will welcome any comments on current appointment arrangements.

Listed Buildings

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what properties presently on, or being considered for inclusion in, its Buildings at Risk register being compiled by the Scottish Civic Trust, have in the last five years been the subject of reports to a procurator fiscal or investigatory actions ordered by a procurator fiscal with regard to insurance fraud, any breach of planning laws, malicious damage, actions contrary to the listed status of the building or any other possible illegal actions by their owners in connection with the property.

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many owners of listed buildings have been prosecuted in each of the last five years for insurance fraud, any breach of planning laws, malicious damage or actions contrary to the listed status of their building; what the outcome was of each prosecution and what properties were involved.

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many investigations ordered by procurators fiscal into the owners of listed buildings are currently under way with regard to insurance fraud, any breach of planning laws, malicious damage or actions contrary to the listed status of their building and whether any of these also involved any investigation into any malicious complaints to the police, attempts to exert improper influence over any police investigations and police officers or a waste of police time.

Colin Boyd QC: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

NHS Waiting Times

Brian Fitzpatrick (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking in order to reduce the maximum wait for (a) an out-patient appointment and (b) in-patient treatment.

Malcolm Chisholm: The National Waiting Times Unit (NWTU), which I established earlier this year, is working with NHS boards on the development of local waiting times standards, which reflect local clinical priorities, and which focus on tackling the longest waiting times for out-patient appointments.

  The Executive undertook, in Our National Health, published in December 2000, that the national maximum waiting time for in-patient/day case treatment would be reduced to nine months, from the current 12 months, by 2003. The Executive, through the NWTU, is working with NHSScotland to help the service achieve this target.

Tourism

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has referred any company to the Director General of Fair Trading in respect of the application of excessive flight supplements for passengers travelling on package holidays from Scottish airports.

Lewis Macdonald: The Scottish Executive has not made any references to the Office of Fair Trading regarding supplements on charter flights from Scottish airports.

Tourism

Mr Kenneth Gibson (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people resident in Scotland have flown on package holidays from airports outside Scotland in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Lewis Macdonald: Estimates based on interviews with about 0.2% of travellers, as part of the International Passenger Survey, have been provided by the Office for National Statistics.

  Visits abroad by Scottish residents on a package holiday which were made by flying from an airport outside Scotland (estimated):

  


 


Thousands 
  



1996 
  

279 
  



1997 
  

310 
  



1998 
  

306 
  



1999 
  

356 
  



2000 
  

357 
  



  These estimates were produced from the results of the International Passenger Survey. This involves interviews with about 0.2% of travellers, so some of the apparent year-to-year fluctuations may be due to sampling variability. Those who took more than one package holiday would be counted once for each visit abroad.